Modern weaponry can be equipped with a plurality of electronic devices which aid its operator in its use, weather mission specific, improved accuracy, or to enhance vision. For example, flashlights, lasers, range finders, sighting devices, combat optics, laser designators/sights, and night vision can be typically integrated and mounted to most current weapons. Each individual device is designed in isolation by a variety of manufacturers and engineers. Each device provides its own power source, leading to unwanted and inefficient bulk, additional real estate on the rail system, weight, multiple battery inventories, multiple battery lives to be monitored individually, and redundant multiple battery compartment design expenses. The result is a heavy and imbalanced weapon and a heavier field load of batteries to accommodate the various accessories, which ultimately impacts the operators effectiveness.
The incorporation of a common power source in a weapon has been attempted, but all known methods fall short of providing an optimal common power source due to many factors such as weight imbalance, ease of removability, types and number of batteries, etc. Some solutions have attempted to install a battery compartment in existing buttstock. To change the battery an operator must open the battery compartment, remove the old battery, replace the new battery and secure the battery compartment. In an active environment, the timing of the battery swapping can be excessive. Moreover, the solutions offered presently do not distribute the weight throughout the entire buttstock of a weapon, thus creating an imbalance within the buttstock itself. Thus there remains an unmet need for a common power source, that can be integrated into a weapon, that it easy to swap in an active environment, with power management and safety functions, and better ergonomics and improved weight/balance to enhance shooting skills, less physically taxing heft, and potentially save lives. Furthermore there further remains an unmet need for such integrated common power source that is backwards compatible with present weapons.